Dish Network Class Action Targets Spanish Contracts

Dish Network LLC has been hit with a class action lawsuit that alleges the satellite provider fails to provide Spanish contracts even though the company solicits Spanish speakers with mailers and has a Spanish language phone line.

Plaintiff Narciso Fuentes filed the class action lawsuit against Dish Network, alleging the company’s failure to provide Spanish contracts violates the Home Solicitation Sales Act, Unfair Competition Law, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and other California laws.

According to the Dish Network class action lawsuit, Fuentes received a postcard mailer from Dish Network last summer. The postcard was written in Spanish and promoted an opportunity to enter into a contract with Dish Network for $31.99 for the first six months with an increase of $8 for the following six months.

Fuentes says he called the phone number listed on the postcard and was connected with a Spanish-speaking employee. According to the Spanish language contract class action lawsuit, he negotiated the terms of his rental of the satellite receivers and the monthly television service. Several days later, a Dish Network employee who spoke only English arrived to install the satellite receivers. At this time, Fuentes had allegedly not signed a contract with Dish Network.

The Dish Network handed Fuentes a tablet with a signature line, which Fuentes signed because he allegedly believed that his signature was necessary to obtain the service he had agreed to during his telephone call. According to the Dish Network class action lawsuit, he was not given a copy of the document he signed at the time of installation.

Fuentes mailed a letter to Dish Network in September 2015, asking the satellite television provider to send him copies of his contract in both Spanish and English. In October, Dish Network allegedly mailed him a copy of the contract, which was written in English and included the signature he provided at the time of installation. According to the class action lawsuit, he did not receive a contract written in Spanish.

The Dish Network class action lawsuit alleges the satellite TV provider violated the Home Solicitation Sales Act, which was implemented to protect consumers against the types of pressure they face when a solicitor comes to their home.

“A reluctant buyer can easily walk away from a seller’s place of business, but he/she cannot walk away from his/her own home, and may find that the only practical way of getting the seller to leave is to agree to buy what the seller is selling,” the Dish Network class action lawsuit alleges.

Recognizing this pressure, the Home Solicitation Sales Act gives consumers the right to cancel a home solicitation contract until midnight on the third business day after the buyer signs the contract. In addition, the Home Solicitation Sales Act requires companies to provide a contract that is written in the same language that was principally used in the sales presentation.

Fuentes filed the Dish Network class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a Class of consumers who subscribed to Dish Network after receiving a sales presentation in Spanish on a Spanish-only telephone line and signed an English language contract at the time of TV equipment and service installation.

Fuentes is represented by Bryan Kemnitzer, Nancy Barron and Elliot Conn of Kemnitzer Barron & Krieg LLP and Arthur D. Levy of Housing & Economic Rights Advocates.

The Dish Network Spanish Language Contract Class Action Lawsuit is Narciso Fuentes v. Dish Network LLC, Case No. 16806669, in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Alameda.